Recently appointed Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan made his first keynote at Intel Vision 2025, where he said he will focus on earning customer trust and catering to their needs and demands. This change in the chipmaking giant’s mindset began with former CEO Pat Gelsinger’s IDM 2.0 plan, and Mr. Tan is apparently pushing this agenda harder with support from his predecessor.
Intel needs to do this, especially as TSMC founder Morris Chang said that Tim Cook told him in 2011 that Intel didn’t know how to be a foundry. It was thought that Team Blue could not accommodate the changes external chip customers required, making it a poor fit for manufacturing the highly customized chips that different devices necessitate.
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“Foundry is a service business, and that is built on the foundational principle of trust — that is very important,” said Mr. Tan. “And also realize that every foundry customer has their own unique design methodology and style of design. That I part I learned from my Cadence days, and it is something that we need to learn and how to adopt [to] each different customer.”
Flexibility allowed TSMC to surpass Intel in the semiconductor industry, especially as this characteristic enabled the company to land Apple as its exclusive chip supplier. Having a huge cash cow like that allowed the company to invest more into research and development, which is likely why TSMC is the leading semiconductor company today.
But Intel isn’t just giving up the fight, especially with the pending arrival of its Intel 18A process node. Mr. Tan said that he’s looking forward to shipping Panther Lake on 18A later this year, especially as it begins high-volume production. Beyond that, he also mentioned the company is continuing work on the more advanced 14A node.
To drive this innovation, Lip-Bu Tan said, “Under my leadership, Intel will be an engineering-focused company. One of my top priorities is to retain and recruit top talent — engineering — and empower innovation and growth.” He also added, “I believe Intel has lost some of this talent over the years; I want to create a culture of innovation empowerment.”
Before Mr. Tan came on board as the company CEO, there was speculation on whether the next CEO should spin off Intel’s foundry business, and if they should slash more jobs to help with profitability. After his speech, it now seems that the path he’ll take for Intel is to keep the foundry and win more customers. Furthermore, Lip-Bu Tan is apparently trying to hire more engineers and other talents the company needs to advance innovation.
The Intel CEO’s keynote address at Vision 2025 sheds light on the path that Intel will take in the coming years. It will take a much longer time to rehabilitate the entire company, but Lip-Bu Tan’s direction aims to pull the company back from the brink.
